Cricket World Cup: West Indies suffer heavy defeat against England

England's Joe Root, centre right, shakes hands with West Indies' Chris Gayle, 45, at the end of the Cricket World Cup match at the Hampshire Bowl in Southampton, England, Friday, June 14, 2019. England won by eight wickets.

The sun appeared after a week of gloom and shined on England, giving the World Cup hosts perfect batting conditions to chase down a meager West Indies target and clinch an eight-wicket win with almost 17 overs to spare on Friday.

Joe Root was able to get on the front foot to nullify any threat of an expected barrage from the West Indies pace attack and scored an unbeaten century to guide England to 213-2 in reply to 212.

Root also took two wickets — both caught-and-bowled — and Barbados-born Jofra Archer took 3-30 after England skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and gave his bowlers advantage of the early cold, overcast conditions by sending West Indies in to bat.

For a change there were no rain interruptions after bad weather that plagued the tournament earlier in the week, causing two games to be abandoned without a ball bowled and the West Indies' match against South Africa to be washed out after 7.3 overs.

While the weather report was OK, the news wasn't entirely good for England. Morgan hobbled off in the 40th over after experiencing muscle spasms in his back. And big-hitting opener Jason Roy strained his left hamstring while fielding in the eighth over and didn't re-enter the game.

West Indies' Shimron Hetmyer, left, and Nicholas Pooran adds runs during the Cricket World Cup match against England.

Roy wouldn't have been allowed to bat any higher than No. 7 as a result, anyway, and that gave Chris Woakes a chance to bat up the order in the reshuffle.

Root scored 100 off 94 balls, his second hundred of the tournament, to become the leading scorer in the World Cup so far. He shared a 95-run opening stand with Jonny Bairstow (45) and combined with Woakes (40) in a 104-run second-wicket partnership.

Woakes (1-16 off five overs) was in the thick of it early against the West Indies, removing Evin Lewis (2) in the third over of the day as the ball seamed around in the moist air.

He also had Chris Gayle dropped by Mark Wood at third man when the dangerous West Indies opener was on 15.

Gayle went on to share a 50-run second-wicket stand with Shai Hope (11) and set the record for most career runs in one-day internationals between West Indies and England. He surpassed Viv Richards' record of 1,619 when he stroked Woakes for a boundary. He drove the next ball down the ground for six just for good measure.

But Gayle was out for 36 from 41 balls — setting the bilateral run record at 1,632 — when he pulled Liam Plunkett into the deep and Bairstow took a running catch. Hope was out two balls later, forcing the West Indies to rally around an 89-run fourth-wicket stand between Nicholas Pooran (63) and Shimron Hetmyer (39).

The resurgence faltered when part-time off-spinner Root picked up his first ODI wicket since January 2018 with a return catch to remove Hetmyer, and quickly made it two when he grabbed a leading edge off West Indies captain Jason Holder (9).

Archer, after an expensive opening spell, cleaned up the tailenders and had a chance for a hat trick in his second spell, immediately after Morgan left the field.

He picked up his first wicket on a referral to the TV umpire when Pooran got a slight edge off his glove to England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.

Archer trapped Sheldon Cottrell lbw on the next delivery and, after Oshane Thomas blocked the hat-trick ball, got his third wicket when he had Carlos Brathwaite (14) caught behind.

Mark Wood (3-18) finished off the innings when he bowled Shannon Gabriel with a yorker as the last four West Indies wickets fell for 10 runs.

Top-ranked England now has three wins and a loss in the tournament and next plays Afghanistan in Manchester. After a promising start with an emphatic win over Pakistan, West Indies has now lost two and had to share the points with South Africa in a washout here earlier this week. West Indies will next face Bangladesh on Monday.

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